Fuel price increase forcing drivers off the road

Car owners are increasingly leaving their vehicles at home since fuel prices broke through the £1 per litre barrier at the beginning of November. Motorpoint, the UK’s leading car supermarket group, surveyed drivers to reality check the established perception that the cost-burdened British motorist will continue to soldier on regardless of increasing costs. The poll shows more than a third of them will not. The view that the stiff upper lip is beginning to falter is supported by the beginnings of a resurgence in fuel price protests. Hauliers, farmers and motorists staged demonstrations outside oil refineries across Britain in December over the Government's refusal to cut fuel duty. Almost two-thirds of the cost of petrol and diesel is made up of tax, which is set to rise by a further 2p per litre in April.